[Users] Keyboard Navigation in Message View

[Dustin Miller]

On Tue, 18 Aug 2020 19:37:33 +0200
Ralf Hutter <rhutter at posteo.de> wrote:

> Hi, i can't confirm the points 2 and 3 on Claws 3.17.3.
> 
DM: Thanks for your reply, Ralf. This is consistent with my testing in
3.17.4 as well. I think it was either in 3.17.5 or 3.17.6 when keyboard
navigation was made available for use with the LiteHTML plugin (i.e.
when viewing HTML message parts), and my guess is that's when these two
issues were introduced.
> 
> Maybe that's because i have other keys set to take me to the next and
> previous messages ("View" menu, "Go to").
> 
DM: I just use the default 'P' and 'N' for these. The use of 'Space'
and 'Return' (as referenced in my intial email) for keyboard navigation
is very common in web browsers, in some PDF readers, and perhaps other
programs as well, so IMO it would be great if Claws would follow the
same conventions. Since the Menu provides options for setting a key
(perhaps even 'Space'? Haven't tried it.) for 'next unread message' and
'previous unread message', it would seem to me that there is no need to
have this hard-coded to the 'Space' key. I do understand, though, that
some people would like this behavior if they are wanting to read
through a bunch of unread messages sequentially, since they can just
use one key to keep moving through. But if it's already possible to set
this up by manually assigning the 'Space' key, or if it could be made
optional, I think that would be preferable than to have it hard-coded
to the 'Space' key.
> 
> Furthermore, for going up a page i have set (by myself?) Backspace,
> and it doesn't take me to any other message.
> 
DM: Interesting; that's the first I knew of that, and my guess is
that's also hard-coded. That works on 3.17.4 as well. Will be
interesting to see if it also works on 3.17.6, or if it has the same
issues as 'Shift + Space'. I'm guessing it will work okay and, if it
does, then it will be a helpful temporary workaround, although not as
intuitive as 'Shift + Space' for someone who has used that a lot in
other programs.
> 
> Then u can set keys for "message scroll" in the View menu. There V is
> set automatically for going to "previous page", but nothing else. V
> doesn't take me to any other message either.
> 
DM: Interesting. I had looked in the Preferences, but not through the
menu. Looks like the 3.17.4 default is to not have any keys assigned to
these (and 'V' is the default for toggling 'message view'). When I get
time, I may see if assigning the 'Space' and 'Enter' keys to these will
override the hard-coded defaults or not, without causing any undesirable
side-effects. Thanks for these helpful ideas, ---Dustin